Sunday, January 24, 2010

More Eagles and Some Deer

We spent a bright sunny dayon Friday along the Lackawaxen and Delaware looking for Bald Eagles.  It was a still day and Eagle activity was light.  At the end of the day we had a nice "flyover" at the Zane Grey boat launch.  He landed in a tree at the boat launch and gave us an opportunity to catch him in the "Golden Light".  Some small birds came along and tried to pester him, but he was not in the mood.  With the Bald Eagle slightly backlit, I used the 200-400 Nikor lens and a 1.4 tele-converter and aperture priority to get some good shots.  Exposure compensation was set at +1.0 to bring out the feathers and keep the head at exposure. As the light dimmed, I used the mirror up mode and the remote cable release. 






































Saturday evening found us enjoying the warm front and bright skies in our favorite deer stand.  We a group of nine young ones play together before the rest of the gang came out for dinner.  We only saw one antlered deer and he was small.

 
The deer seemed to be watching something beyond the stand and "spooked" before dark.  .  When we left the stand we crossed a fresh set of bobcat tracks in the snow.  It had come close to the stand in a blind area for us.  After having spent so much time with the Pa Elk this fall, we had to retrain ourselves that the slightest movement or sound would cause the deer to run.

3 comments:

Coy Hill said...

Nice work on the eagles Jim!

There is no comparison between photographing Pa deer & elk. Even the bucks in SNP are no more trusting than the Pa elk.

Heather said...

Amazing, amazing eagle shots Jim!

Willard said...

A wonderful group of eagle and deer photos, Jim. Coy and I are hoping to go to Conowingo soon.

It was very interesting to read your discussion in earlier posts on how you deal with photographing flying subjects, and how to set exposure when dealing with the white on the eagles and hawks.